- MPs heard how defibrillators should be as important as fire extinguishers or smoke alarm with greater access being accompanied with greater CPR training.
- They heard that survival from sudden cardiac arrest out of hospitals is left to luck, too often leading to the worst outcome.
On Monday 24th April, the APPG for Defibrillators held its third evidence session as part of an ongoing inquiry investigating issues surrounding out of hospital cardiac arrests.
MPs heard stories from David Ginola, former professional footballer and a regular Sky Sports pundit, and Ben Culff, both survivors of a sudden cardiac arrest – thanks to quick access to a defibrillator and CPR efforts. MPs also heard moving testimonies from Naomi Issitt who tragically lost her son Jamie due to inadequate access to defibrillators and too slow a response from emergency services.
Each year in the UK, 60,000 sudden cardiac arrests happen out of hospital2. The majority of these take place in the home (72%) or workplace (15%). Sudden cardiac arrest happens quickly, with little to no warning. Without defibrillation, the chances of survival drop by 10% every minute. Unfortunately, in the UK, the chances of surviving a sudden cardiac arrest outside of hospital are bleak – 1 in 10.1
7 years ago, David Ginola was playing a charity football match in France when he suffered a sudden cardiac arrest. A fellow footballer saved his life giving him CPR for nearly 20 minutes, breaking three ribs in the process. David acknowledged his luck in surviving and has been campaigning since to ensure it is not left to luck for people to survive. David called for improvements in access to defibrillators, making sure that where there are defibrillators accessible that these actually work and people are informed on how to use them. Too often there are not enough people when the situation arises who know how to perform CPR and ultimately save a life.
David Ginola was lucky. Sadly, Naomi Issitt’s son, did not survive his sudden cardiac arrest in January 2022. Jamie collapsed at 2am, significantly reducing his chances of accessing a defibrillator in good time for survival. Despite collapsing outside a school building which had a defibrillator in, the time of night meant the building was locked. Jamie also suffered from ambulances not meeting the target response time. As a solution to this, emergency services sent a police car which they thought had a defibrillator. When the police car arrived, they realised the defibrillator was not in there. Only 1 in 11 police cars carry a defibrillator. On top of this, despite being around 15 adults at the time, none of them knew how to perform CPR, with one friend trying for 19 minutes. Ever since, Naomi has been tirelessly campaigning on behalf of Jamie to increase the number of defibrillators to be accessible at all times, for all emergency responders to carry defibrillators and to require more people to be CPR trained.
David Ginola “Sudden cardiac arrest will be a leading cause of death by 2030. There should be more defibrillators everywhere, even if it means we all must have one.
I am greatly supportive of the initiatives a number of campaigns are promoting, including The Circuit, but more must be done to raise awareness, increase access to defibrillators, and ensure everyone is adequately trained in performing CPR to save a life, in the same way that mine was.”
Jonathan Gullis MP said “It has been incredibly moving and powerful to hear the stories of those impacted by incidents of out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest. It has been significantly valuable in helping us see the true gravity of the issue and we as a Government must do more to ensure lives are not being lost.
This inquiry will be making recommendations to Government to ensure that survival is not down to luck and people are empowered during these difficult situations.
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